Erie School District gets ready for a year like no other

Reconfiguration brings change to every school, especially the high schools. 'It has been pretty hectic,' School Board president says.

Ed Palattella @ETNPalattella

For any school district, any one of the changes would be significant.

The Erie School District is undergoing them all in the same academic year — and at the same time the district is dealing with the aftermath of a fire. The changes include:

• The consolidation of high schools and the high school sports programs.

• The conversion of two of those high school buildings into middle schools.

• The closing of two elementary schools.

• The creation of magnet school programs.

• An overhaul of bus transportation.

• A switch of class times for elementary school students, who will start and end their school day an hour later than in 2016-17.

Even the Erie School District's dress code was affected. Upon the recommendation of the administration, the School Board in late June revised the dress code to allow high school students to wear jeans.

That change, like so many of the others, is connected to the school district's reconfiguration, which it undertook for 2017-18 to avoid insolvency and to help secure additional state aid.

All the changes will be in effect on Aug. 28, the first day of school — a day that will be unlike any other in the 147-year history of the Erie School District.

"It has been pretty hectic," School Board President Frank Petrungar Jr. said. "Any one change would be a little crazy, but everybody is taking everything in stride and doing what they have to do to get school open."

Run-up to recovery

The Erie School District started planning for its reconfiguration in July 2016. As it struggled to balance its budget without deep program cuts, the district received $4 million in one-time emergency state aid.

In return, the state placed the district under what is called financial watch and required it to submit a financial recovery plan to the state Department of Education.

Jay Badams, the superintendent at the time, led the development of the plan, which, based on guidance from the Department of Education, the district hoped to use to leverage more state aid in 2017-18.

Badams focused on inequities in the state funding system for public education, and said the Erie School District was receiving far less than it should under the state's new fair funding formula, which applies only to new funding and is not retroactive. The district also highlighted how costs related to pensions and charter schools had undermined its budget.

Badams said he wanted the district's more than 11,000 students — 80 percent of whom are from financially disadvantaged households — to enjoy the same level of resources as Erie County's other, more affluent school districts. He said the Erie School District, if necessary, would close its four high schools and send those students to public high schools in the county, a strategy that stirred unease among the county's 12 other school districts.

The Erie School District's initial financial recovery plan raised the possibility of the district closing all four high schools. But it primarily focused on how the district, to save money and address declining enrollment, would consolidate its high schools and close two elementary schools — with those changes to occur in 2018-19.

"With sufficient state aid, this alternative path of recovery could begin in 2017-18 with a modest tax increase and the announcement of large-scale reconfiguration of district schools," according to the financial recovery plan. "Due to its scale and scope, this reconfiguration must include critical community conversations to engage all stakeholders in a shared vision for public education in Erie.

"Sufficient community efforts during 2017-18 will be necessary to refine and achieve this bold vision with actual changes taking place in 2018-19."

The district submitted its plan to the state on Dec. 5. The plan asked for an additional $31.8 million in state aid, which was close to what the district would receive from the state if the fair funding formula — which accounts for a district's poverty level and similar issues — were retroactive.

The district soon had to rework its timeline.

Education Secretary Pedro Rivera rejected the financial recovery plan in late February. He said the department had no authority to allocate additional money — a reality that the department had never told the district to take into consideration. And Rivera said the amount of the additional annual funding the district requests must be "reasonable," and not as high as $31.8 million.

The state said the district could submit a revised financial recovery plan, which the district continued to work on through the summer. But the immediate effect of the rejection of the initial plan, and the Department of Education's noncommital approach to seeking more funding for the district, spurred immediate action.

Badams and the Erie School Board agreed that the district's reconfiguration had to occur in 2017-18, or the district would run out of money.

"We don't have any options," Badams said after the state's rejection of the plan.

Change in leadership

Adding to the tumult at the district was Badams' pending departure. He announced in mid-January that he was leaving the Erie School District on June 30 to become superintendent of a school district that serves towns in Vermont and New Hampshire, near Dartmouth College. Badams had led the Erie School District for seven years.

The School Board on Feb. 1 hired a new superintendent, Brian Polito, the district's chief financial officer under Badams. Polito's first day as superintendent was July 1. The district's assistant superintendent, Bea Habursky, remained on staff. The board said Polito's financial acumen and Habursky's expertise in education made them an ideal team.

Polito's public profile increased long before July 1. He and Habursky, along with Badams, were the key administration officials who led a series of five public forums the Erie School District held in March to get feedback on the reconfiguration.

Among the major concerns were how the reorganization would affect transportation and safety. Many parents also said the district's tight budget, including a lack of guaranteed additional state funding, made the reorganization inevitable.

"Change is coming whether we like it or not," one parent said at the first forum, at the Booker T. Washington Center, on March 13.

The district administration considered the input as it refined its plan for the reconfiguration. The School Board gave preliminary approval to the plan on April 19 and gave final approval on June 22. The two votes were necessary to abide by state regulations for closing schools.

The final reconfiguration plan, though designed for austerity, goes beyond saving money. The district developed the plan as a way to establish what it said are a new vision and a new direction for the school district. The plan, for example, sets forth a magnet school program to provide more specialized classes, such as in health care and finance, for students in high school.

"We are at a point now where it looks like we have an opportunity in front of us," Badams said before the board vote on April 19. "We should seize it."

Badams received something of a parting gift. On June 30, Badams' last official day as superintendent, the state General Assembly passed a 2017-18 spending budget that included $14 million in additional funding for the Erie School District, plus another $1 million in basic education funding for the district.

State Sen. Dan Laughlin of Millcreek Township, R-49th Dist., was instrumental in securing the money.

"It will be transformational for the community," Polito said of the funding boost.

Balancing the budget

The school district's reconfiguration is estimated to save $3.6 million to $6.6 million a year, depending on the extent of the reorganization. The plan centers on the closing and merging of schools. More than 50 teachers lost their jobs as a result.

Even with all the cuts, the Erie School Board was not able to pass a truly balanced $192 million budget on June 28. The board balanced the budget with about $8 million in anticipated additional state revenue. The district got that revenue two days later, with the $14 million in the state budget.

The district will use that money to balance the budget and eliminate a long-term deficit that has grown as the district has had to delay paying expenses from year to year because of lack of revenue.

The reconfiguration will cost taxpayers, slightly. In passing the budget, the School Board also increased property taxes 0.5 percent in 2017-18.

The increase will boost taxes by $8.31 for the owner of a home assessed at $100,000 and raise an additional $203,109 for the school district in the 2017-18 fiscal year, which starts July 1.

Many School Board members were reluctant to raise taxes. But Badams and Polito said a small increase was necessary to help the district show the state that it was invested in its financial recovery and deserved more money from the state. The strategy appeared to work.

Evolving plans

Over the summer, Erie School District officials have met daily to refine the reconfiguration plan. The first day of school is sure to be unusually busy as students, teachers and parents become accustomed to the overhaul. No one will have a year to get ready, as the district originally wanted. The changes, all of them, are occurring now.

"Some were hard decisions," said Frank Petrungar Jr., the School Board president. "I think it is just going pretty well with all that we had on our plate."

Ed Palattella can be reached at 870-1813 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNpalattella